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AN EVENING OF ACOUSTIC SOUNDS

April 21, 2016

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Every once in a while, a person may want to get away from the hustle of daily life, the stress of traffic, the tragedy of fuel scarcity and the crudeness of shakitibobo; and just…breathe.

Last Sunday, was one of such evenings. Such talents as Phrance, Nana Aisha and Bemyoda gathered in the well-known spot – Bogobiri to serenade the ears of their audience with their sultry voices and sweet instruments.

Two of the artists, I was already familiar with but it was my first time hearing Phrance and he was the first main act. It would not be an overstatement to say that he blew my mind. In fact, I think I fell in love. And that’s when you know you are faced with real talent – when the voice of the singer before you seduces you.

And like the other two precocious artists, Phrance could also play the guitar. I do not know if it is the only instrument he plays, but he played it effortlessly. However, the instrument that added that extra something to his performance was the violin. The violinist was also very talented and his gift awakened something in my soul. There is nothing like the feeling a violin can spark within you.

Next up was the beautiful Nana Aisha. She was the only female singing artist that night but she left no quarter. Her voice was soft and seemed to tease, though the songs she chose were more meaningful, and bolder, than they were romantic. The song that touched me the most was Faraway. She admitted she wrote it at a dark period in her life. But these days her lyrics take on a more positive note.

And then there was Bemyoda. Of the three, I am most familiar with his raspy yet saccharine tones. He has a voice that you cannot but think – that’s Bem – when you hear it. He sang songs I knew and those I didn’t, but as the evening drew to a close, I began to whisper Shima Yam, in the hope that he would sense my quiet wish – and he did. Shima Yam was the last one he sang and a sweet way to end the night.

It made perfect sense to me that these three individual talents with music that transcends time and culture, would come together to perform. All we need now is for the three of them to collaborate on a song. In fact, I believe things would be perfect if they collaborated on a song that they asked yours truly to write for them.

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Oyinkan Braithwaite is a graduate of Creative Writing and Law from Kingston University. Following her degree, she worked as an assistant editor at Kachifo and has been freelancing as a writer and editor since. She has had short stories published in anthologies and has also self published work. In 2014, she was shortlisted as a top ten spoken word artist in the Eko Poetry Slam.